but slavery was the basis of the english and the spanish and the french economy and he rejected the petition from the virginians as did king george. by the time the founding fathers came along now we have almost half a million slaves. what could you do with them? they were largely unskilled and there were no opportunities in the south. the word out of one plantation began to another plantation. there were villages and towns and cities in the north come in and in the north people could read the slaves. there were opportunities in manufacturing where they could learn skills and serve as apprentices and learn skills and trades. couldn't do that in the south. the only opportunity for work was field hands, and then when it caught him chain was invented -- cotton shane was invented, you now have a sort of patrician of plantation owners. middle and lower-income people buying property and planting cotton. prior to that, most of the poor whites in the south were against slavery because the slaves compete for jobs. >> unlike most politicians he put his political career on the line in favor of abolitio